Paddington: Past and Present

by William Robins

“The Lock Asylum was founded in the year 1787, by the Rev. Thomas Scott, the venerable commentator. It then occupied a building in connection with the old Lock Hospital. In 1842, it was removed to its present site, and in 1848–9, enlarged to its present dimensions. When first founded, the Asylum received only sixteen inmates; in 1842, it was enlarged so as to receive twenty; it is now capable of containing 100.

Since the foundation of the Asylum, 1,175 female patients of the Hospital have been admitted, a majority of whom have been provided with situations, restored to their friends, or otherwise comfortably settled in life.

There are now forty-seven in the Asylum.

Needlework is taken in at the Asylum, and the payment for it constitutes a valuable addition to the receipts of the Institution. A laundry is open also for the washing of those families who may be willing, by sending the work, thus further to benefit the Asylum.”

Besides the chapel and the schools, which have sprung out of these charitable institutions, there are now connected with them and the chapel, the following societies, viz. The Westbourn Friendly Visiting Society, the Westbourn Provident Bank, the Lock Sunday schools, the Church Missionary Association, the Juvenile Missionary Association, the Sunday School Children’s Missionary Association, the Church of England Young Men’s Society; and the London City Mission.

The Public Establishments in Paddington, unconnected with particular forms of religion, are soon recounted:

Here there are no places for rational amusement—unless indeed, we consider such places as “the Flora tea-gardens,” and “Bott’s Bowling-green,” to come under this designation. In that region of the parish still devoted to bull-dogs, and pet spaniels; the bodies of broken-down carriages, old wheels, rusty grates, and old copper boilers; little gardens, and low miserable sheds; there is an establishment, which boasts of having the truly attractive glass, in which “for the small charge of two-pence, any young lady may behold her future husband.” But although such attractions as these exist, the youths who live on the celebrated Paddington Estate, have not to thank the lords of the soil for setting apart any portion of it for their physical improvement; and yet for the efficient development both of mind and body, it is necessary that the physical condition of the young should be cared for. In Paddington, however, there is no public gymnasium; there is now no village-green, worthy of the name; [176] the young are not trained to use their motive powers to the best advantage; there are no public baths. And when, on the establishment of the baths and washhouses in Marylebone, the governing Body in Paddington was solicited to join in that useful work, that good office was rejected, and the people of Marylebone were permitted to carry out that necessary and useful undertaking by themselves. Perhaps the Paddington vestrymen thought there ought to be a bath, and a bath-room, in every house in Paddington; if so they certainly thought rightly. But how many of these necessary adjuncts to a healthful home are to be found even on the Paddington Estate, and what steps have our local governors taken to supply this want in the houses of the poor?

In particular religious communities, the education of those who can no longer be called children, is beginning to be attended to, in some degree; yet there is no public lecture room; no museum; no public reading room; no place of general instruction in Paddington, where Jew and Gentile, saint and sinner, alike may meet to receive lessons from that fountain of truth which ought to be open to all mankind, irrespectively of their private religious opinions.

And yet in Paddington we see some of the most miraculous signs of the times. A city of palaces has sprung up on a bishop’s estate within twenty years; a road of iron, with steeds of steam, brings into the centre of this city, and takes from it in one year, a greater number of living beings than could be found in all England a few years ago. The electric telegraph is at work by the side of this iron road. And by means of conveyances, open to all who have any small change, from sixpence to a penny, the whole of London can be traversed in half the time it took to reach Holborn-bar at the beginning of this century, when the road was in the hands of Mr. Miles, his pair-horse coach, and his redoubtable Boy. This coach and these celebrated characters were for a long time the only appointed agents of communication between Paddington and the City. The journey to the City was performed by them in something more than three hours; the charge for each outside passenger being two shillings, the “insides” being expected to pay three. The delivery of parcels on the line of road added very materially to Mr. Miles’s occupation and profit; and I am informed that Miles’s Boy not only told tales, to the great amusement of his master’s customers, but gave them some equally amusing variations on an old fiddle, which was his constant travelling companion, and which he carefully removed from its green-baize covering, to beguile the time at every resting-place on the road.

When the Paddington omnibuses first started, the aristocracy of “The Green” were quite shocked at the disgrace thus brought on the parish; and loud and long were their complaints to the vestry, and most earnest were their petitions to that body, to rid them of “the nuisance.” Since that time, however, greater folks than those of “The Green” have not objected to be seated in these public vehicles; and so useful and necessary to the public have they become, that one Company of Proprietors of Paddington Omnibuses has had in use 700 horses at one time. And, if the Paddington omnibuses were improved, as they easily might be, they would be much more useful than they are at present.